| Note: Both Chase and Citi have now revealed that they’ll increase their Global Entry and TSA PreCheck fee credits to $120 as of October 1, 2024. I’ve updated the below post to reflect that. Thanks to AwardWallet for flagging this. |
United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is adjusting some of the pricing of its Trusted Traveler Programs (TTP). This is something that was first proposed back in 2020, but we now have a date for when it will take effect. Let me emphasize right away that the price of TSA PreCheck isn’t changing in any way.
In this post:
Global Entry fee increasing to $120
As of October 1, 2024, the cost of a Global Entry membership will be increasing from $100 to $120, representing a 20% price increase. As a refresher, for those not familiar with Global Entry, it’s a program that allows pre-qualified low risk travelers to get expedited immigration when entering the United States, and a membership is valid for five years. For what it’s worth, this is the program’s first price increase in over 15 years.
As it’s described, the current fees are no longer sufficient to recover the CBP’s costs to administer the program. I suppose that’s fair, when you consider that inflation has been way more than 20% over the past 15 years. At the same time, you’d think it would be in the CBP’s best interest to have as many people enrolled in Global Entry as possible, since it means fewer resources need to be allocated to screening these passengers at the airport.
Read my step-to-step guide to applying for Global Entry, and my guide to renewing Global Entry.
NEXUS fee increasing to $120 as well
NEXUS is arguably currently the best value Trusted Traveler Program. The enrollment fee is only $50, and that gets you Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, and expedited immigration in Canada. It’s bizarre that this has been so much cheaper than Global Entry, since you’re getting more for less (though enrollment is more complicated).
Well, there’s an update there as well. As of October 1, 2024, the cost of NEXUS will be increased from $50 to $120, which represents a 140% price increase. This is intended to create consistency between the two programs, and that seems logical enough, despite how significant the price increase is.
Global Entry will be free for kids
Children can sign up for Global Entry, and they currently pay the same fee as adults. That will be changing — as of October 1, 2024, minors (under the age of 18) will be exempt from the application fee if they apply concurrently with a parent or legal guardian, or if their parent or legal guardian is already a member of the same program. Otherwise minors will still have to pay $120.
This means that for most families, the total cost of Global Entry may very well be decreasing.
What does this mean for credit card perks?
Currently, a variety of premium credit cards offer a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit. The way this typically works, you can receive a statement credit of up to $100 every four or five years if you pay for a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck enrollment with your card.
With the fee for Global Entry now increasing to $120, what does that mean for credit card benefits? I’ve speculated that I think card issuers will probably increase the maximum statement credit for this benefit to $120, since partial reimbursement of a fee isn’t as sexy of a marketing bullet.
This is increasingly turning out to be a reality. Both Chase and Citi have now announced that coinciding with the Global Entry price increase, the credit on cards with this benefit will be increased to a maximum of $120.
So far Chase and Citi are the two card issuers to make an announcement like this, though I think this puts pressure on the remaining issuers to do the same.
Bottom line
As of October 1, 2024, US Customs and Border Protection is making some changes to its Trusted Traveler Programs. The fee for enrolling in Global Entry will increase from $100 to $120, while the fee for enrolling in NEXUS will increase from $50 to $120.
Obviously this price increase is bad for members, though a positive change is that kids will be able to enroll for free in conjunction with a parent, so Global Entry will be cheaper for most families. Furthermore, it’s nice to see that some card issuers are updating their fee credits to reflect this increased cost.
What do you make of the cost of Global Entry increasing?
The NEXUS fee is bad policy. The price of Global Entry has no relevance to Canadians. There does not have to be parity with Global Entry cost. Justin Trudeau is an idiot with no spine. He should have threatened to bomb the US if they insisted on the fee increase. Ok, $85 would have been defendable but not from $50 to $120.
The inefficiency of the USA isn't in the price of these packages, it's in the fact that there's any need for them on top of the ESTA process.
In fact, I wonder whether there are there any other countries charging visitors for this sort of expedited treatment on top of an evisa cost. I have only waited in long queues to get into countries where I wasn't required to obtain prior authorisation to travel. In...
The inefficiency of the USA isn't in the price of these packages, it's in the fact that there's any need for them on top of the ESTA process.
In fact, I wonder whether there are there any other countries charging visitors for this sort of expedited treatment on top of an evisa cost. I have only waited in long queues to get into countries where I wasn't required to obtain prior authorisation to travel. In all other places where I had an electronic visa/travel authorisation, I have always been able to get in within a few minutes.
Global Entry has vastly improved from the slow, bugged, camera with paper printout, to me not having to remove my glasses. The CBP officer even knows my name before I get to him. Online renewal, no interview, card in mail within two weeks, 5+years until expiration. Out of my seat, and on the street in 10 minutes. I don't know what anyone is complaining about.
Seriously. 3pm in JFK T4 immigration on a Weds, didn't even break my stride except to look briefly at the machine. Walked out and exchanged a brief head nod with the CBP officer. Total time, maybe 1 min 10 seconds from entering the immigration hall.
Signs for non-GE US passport holders indicated 90 min wait.
Worth every cent.
I renewed by Global entry a few weeks ago. Filed on a Sunday. Was approved on Tuesday and had my new card by Saturday.
NEXUS was $50 because the Canadians wanted it cheap. Many depend on it. The fact that it's increasing to $120 is blamed on harmonizing the cost with Global Entry. Global Entry has no relevance to Canada. The real reason is the Justin Trudeau has no spine. He should have fought for Canada instead of being a wimp. It's time for the Liberal Party to dump Trudeau. He's an idiot in many ways. He is also an admitted drug user before it was legal.
Easier and way cheaper to just fly to a Mexican border airport for your last leg like TIJ or CBX and just walk across. You'll get an MRE, a gift card and a free flight to the city of your choice.
My recent experience for a Global Entry renewal submitted the allowable year in advance was that it took 55 weeks to receive my documents, and no interview was required. Conversely, my US passport renewal, also submitted a year ahead of expiration, was received in less than three weeks. Interpret this as you will.
The only thing wrong with Global Entry is the unpredictably of the process. With fingerprints no longer required, the feds should offer a refund if they don’t make a decision within a given time.
Paying the government to do a background check on you? And know who you are and where you are at all times. No thanks. You can download Mobile Passport on your phone and use it to enter the US in a faster line and it's free.
I suppose many people will dispute the issue with their credit card. Some card benefits specifically say the amount of $100 while others just comment on the benefit to cover it.
It was a matter of time before someone realized what a screaming deal NEXUS is. I knew I'd pay more sooner or later. But I was hoping for later.
It's cheaper but more cumbersome having to complete both Canada and US interview, while global entry can be easily done on arrival to a US international airport.
as a Canadian living in the US it was quite the hassle getting Nexus.
$20 over five years? Have a cow.
Ben - come on, this comment reads like it was written by Leff: " I suppose that just shows how inefficient the government is, since you’d think that an easy online application plus a short in-person interview wouldn’t cost $100+ to process, especially when you consider how this has been scaled (there are over 12 million Global Entry members"
You know full well that the program entails much more to run and operate than that....
Ben - come on, this comment reads like it was written by Leff: " I suppose that just shows how inefficient the government is, since you’d think that an easy online application plus a short in-person interview wouldn’t cost $100+ to process, especially when you consider how this has been scaled (there are over 12 million Global Entry members"
You know full well that the program entails much more to run and operate than that. It's not just an interview/application - there's a whole background check behind it. Plus a bunch more operational aspects of the program.
You are completely spot-on. But this just illustrates how pervasive and deeply ingrained right-wing memes and outright disinformation has become in our culture.
The problem is that apparently Ben doesn't know what the program entails and couldn't be bothered to find out. I honestly don't know if the Global Entry program is efficient or not. Maybe it is wasteful, but we will never know from this post.
One thing I appreciate from (good) bloggers is when they present strong opinions bolstered with data and a deeper understanding of the topic than I have. Even when I disagree with...
The problem is that apparently Ben doesn't know what the program entails and couldn't be bothered to find out. I honestly don't know if the Global Entry program is efficient or not. Maybe it is wasteful, but we will never know from this post.
One thing I appreciate from (good) bloggers is when they present strong opinions bolstered with data and a deeper understanding of the topic than I have. Even when I disagree with their positions I learn something. I learned something important from this post, which is how little effort this blogger puts into understanding what he writes about.
I do not understand the utility of this anymore. Nowadays they do not take as much time to process you through immigration or customs anyways. Last time i went through almost instantaneously. Even i hear the Y crowd does not need to line up for hours anymore.
Nexus was a great deal and now it’s the same as Global Entry. That’s fair, but I hope the credit card perks will acknowledge that it’s very similar and should be covered in the same way.
DMoney beat me to it - but NEXUS was a screaming deal for those with a family. It did involve an interview (or two) at the border, but it was an easy way to get GE and have expedited travel on land borders to Canada. As my kids age out of the under 18 range, they're going to be thrilled by this new bigger "every 5 year" bill that I'm positive they'll pay to keep...
DMoney beat me to it - but NEXUS was a screaming deal for those with a family. It did involve an interview (or two) at the border, but it was an easy way to get GE and have expedited travel on land borders to Canada. As my kids age out of the under 18 range, they're going to be thrilled by this new bigger "every 5 year" bill that I'm positive they'll pay to keep their NEXUS. It was a good 15+ year run. No question I'll keep paying it as well. And I hope more CC's include NEXUS as well as GE as a reimbursed category.
I just noticed that the Nexus application processing time being officially quoted is "12-14 months". Pass.
Dude, why do you say ignorant things like this: “an easy online application plus a short in-person interview wouldn’t cost $100+ to process?” Do you really think this is the only cost of global entry? How about the IT, the technology, the overhead associated with the interview centers? On and on and on…
Yeah, I usually like this blog but that was one of the most clueless statements I have read on a travel blog in a long time. Sad that Ben couldn't be bothered to understand even the bare basics of how the system works or give more than two second thinking about what goes into running a system like that. Apparently a Google search and five minutes of reading was too much work to stay credible.
Yeah it's weird how there are these constant, basic fact-checking errors, typos, and other mistakes. But y'all were clapping so hard yesterday about the first class reviews because at least the articles are "honest and unbiased". What good is that, if there are actual, factual consistency issues?
Well, looking at the middle of the range pay for a CBP officer, GS-9, its about $37/hr. just in CBP officer/interviewer salary before considering overhead like the rent of the retail space their interview center is in, etc. Remember, there is *some* level of work behind the scenes beyond just the examiner's time. Honestly $100->$ 120 seems kind of reasonable to me.
I wonder if they will let me split my GE charge on two credit cards. (Renewal happening next year.)
What hasn't gone up in price? What you get for the price is well worth it. CLEAR costs more and offers far less value.
What an astonishing coincidence that my GE is up for renewal next year... #EverythingIsAConspiracy
I think you can renew six months before the expire date. If your birth day is after April, then you will have to pay the extra.
12 months before expire date.
My personal Global Entry renewal experience was that I initiated the request at the allowable one year ahead of expiration and received my new credentials 55 weeks later with no interview required. Conversely, a simultaneous US passport renewal, also initiated a year ahead of expiration, took less than three weeks for normal processing.
Not really sure this is a case of "government inefficiency" when the program costs less than Clear for example.
It's not just processing an application, it's also doing a background check and maintaining the service and units. Just a background check can be up to $100. Federal government probably also pays the people processing better than others. I wonder if CBP breaks down if they have tax payer funding going towards the program or...
Not really sure this is a case of "government inefficiency" when the program costs less than Clear for example.
It's not just processing an application, it's also doing a background check and maintaining the service and units. Just a background check can be up to $100. Federal government probably also pays the people processing better than others. I wonder if CBP breaks down if they have tax payer funding going towards the program or not, but wouldn't surprise me if budget games by Congress play a part too.
I agree MPC has been very fast for me. I signed up for pre-check only in 2020 bc I didn’t have international travel planned for interview on arrival and it was hard to get interviews. If credit cards don’t increase it to $120 might maintain pre check only considering how fast MPC is
No fee for minors has been the case with NEXUS already, so extension of that to GE is just aligning the value proposition of both programs - same as bringing their fees in-line.
I don't necessarily agree with your comment that the government is inefficient in administering these programs as it takes more than just the interview process to administer these programs, including ongoing background checks, systems to filter out bad applicants, etc.
I had let my Global Entry lapse during the pandemic. When I booked my next international trip, it was too late to renew it, so I used Mobile Passport upon entry instead. I was through immigration faster than my wife who did still have her Global Entry. I wonder how CBP will continue with both programs, considering mobile passport requires no application, fee, or interview and nearly an identical experience (and in some airports, a faster experience).
I have Global Entry. I used Mobile Passport once a long time ago. I had to very quickly enter all of my information once I got off the plane, I could not enter the information ahead of time, is it still like that? I guess if you are waiting for luggage you have time to do that, but if you only have a carryon filling in the information would delay you.
Yeah I was surprised how quick a colleague got through using MPC I was still waiting on a free machine in the GE area.
Global Entry is not as valuable as it used to be. The normal lines are faster now with better tech. You can also use an app to expedite clearance without being a Global Entry member.
Normal CBP lines or MPC doesn’t include PreCheck. Have fun getting undressed each time you go through security in the U.S. while those with GE & PC will breeze through ahead of you.
The news that the GE enrollment fee will be waived for kids just made my day! When you have a couple of kids that can add up fast. So fast that we let it lapse for ours so my wife and I can only use GE when we're not travelling with them. This change will make it much nicer for us as a family.